Ripe for Riesling in NY vineyards

Thursday

Sep 26, 2013 at 1:55 PMSep 26, 2013 at 1:55 PM

Production is way up this season for grape varieties produced in the Finger Lakes region.

By Julie Sherwood

JSherwood@messengerpostmedia.com

If you plan to attend the Naples Grape Festival this weekend, expect the scents and sounds of festival favorites like popping kettle corn and sizzling sausage to have more competition than usual from the presence of the almighty grape.

The prolific purple juice grape, the Concord — which is among the varieties grown in vineyards right off Main Street Naples — is getting lots of attention this year. In fact, juice grapes Concord and Niagara are so lush this season, that this week viticulture specialists announced juice grape growers are not only expecting a record harvest, but many need to thin their crop to ensure healthy fruits and vines.

This year "is going to be an exceptional year and will probably be talked about for years to come," said Luke Haggerty, viticulture extension specialist with Cornell University's Lake Erie Regional Grape Program. For Concord and Niagara growers, "last year's frost resulted in a very heavy crop load this year," he said.

Holding up a juicy bunch of Concords last weekend at his roadside stand on Main Street in Naples, Rich Jerome — owner of Jerome's U-Pick Fruit Farm — confirmed this is indeed a banner year for the variety that will be in abundance at the Grape Festival and elsewhere this season.

Coming off last season — a short season with a smaller yield — 2013 promises to be a good year, said Jerome, who grows several varieties of grapes sold for both fresh fruit and wine production.

The long and the short of it

Tim Martinson, a senior Cornell Cooperative Extension associate, said weather has made all the difference between 2012 and 2013.

"Unseasonably warm weather followed by spring frosts led to an early and small harvest in 2012," said Martinson, whose applied research in viticulture supports the New York wine grape industry. "This year's moderate temperatures have growers looking at a more typical harvest schedule. Last year, growers were finished by the end of September — and it was the earliest harvest on record. This year, they are hoping for a few more weeks of dry, sunny weather to finish ripening the crop. So far, quality is excellent, and growers are optimistic about both quality and quantity."

"This year has been almost the exact opposite of last year," said John Ingle, owner of Heron Hill Winery. Ingle grows several varieties of grapes in vineyards on Keuka Lake and overlooking Canandaigua Lake in South Bristol. Last year, the harvest was almost a month early and the hot, dry weather produced high sugar levels, he said.

"Last year was a smaller crop, but an amazing year," said Ingle. On the plus side, this year's cool damp weather is perfect for food-friendly varieties like Riesling and Chardonnay.

Bring on the sun

Like others behind New York state's $3 billion wine/grape industry, which stems from some 32,000 acres of grapes, Ingle said the ups and downs of production are often driven by the weather.

Ingle said this spring, his tractor got stuck in the mud three or four times and attempts to control mildew were often futile. Last year was what Ingle called "a Pinot Noir year," because the hot, dry weather was favorable to the Pinot Noir grape.

"In contrast, as in this season, cool damp weather is perfect weather for a Riesling year," Ingle said.

With Riesling the flagship wine of the Finger Lakes, "that is very exciting," he said.

Jerome, Ingle and others recall well 2010, a season on record for its ideal conditions. But, as Ingle said, "not every year is a super year."

What would be nice, he said: "Two or three weeks of sunshine."

This year is "not a 'perfect vintage' like last year or 2010," said Jim Trezise, president of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation in a recent newsletter. "But unless the weather really deteriorates (read: lots of rain) it could turn out very well."

In a recent blog, Ingle summed up thoughts about the season and what keeps his passion for winemaking alive: "So the stage is set, Mother Nature holds the cards, a couple of cards are 'up,' but the remaining cards will tell the hand," he wrote. "The only difference is we can't fold, just come back next year and do it, again — it's a vintage!"